@urlyman @chris My concern is that Europe, without Russian supplies, has been using lower summer demand to fill up reserves for winter, so using them now risk causing problems in winter, unless they are confident Trump will be ousted and a deal with Iran becomes possible (deal requires acceptance of a JCPOA-like nucelar deal whcih Trump cannot accept because he campaigned so hard against such without understanding the deal).

@urlyman @chris in past fuel crises, rather than run down emergency stocks, intended for when we would otherwise run out, governments used to do actions intended to reduce demand, such as reducing speed limits. Now, as well as depleting stocks in the probably vain hope that the effect of the Iran war is noting but a temporary blip, they actually do things like cut fuel duty, to encourage us to use as much oil products as usual.
This is even without getting into a discussion about what to do about the climate crisis and the need for planned degrowth.

@urlyman @chris meanwhile, my company and my wife's, both of which have had everyone working from home since 2020, have suddenly decided that we should all return to the office so we can collaborate better*

* They're both doing layoffs and it's cheaper if people quit, who cares about emissions or the cost of petrol, it's not then paying